The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Sourish Bose and Deepanvita Ghosh, seeking to quash an FIR filed against them for allegedly defrauding Amazon of over Rs 69 lakh.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna described the case as an example of modern-day crime.

The petitioners had requested that both the FIR and the magistrate court’s order, which had taken cognizance of the case, be set aside. The duo was charged in 2017 after an Amazon employee uncovered their alleged fraudulent scheme, which was reportedly carried out over a span of several years.

As per the complaint, Bose used his bank account to order high-end products from Amazon, which were delivered to Ghosh’s address. Within 24 hours, Bose would initiate a return request. After receiving a refund, he allegedly swapped the original items with counterfeit ones, repacked them, and returned them to Amazon.

The prosecution noted that the return addresses were sometimes linked to Ghosh’s residence and, at other times, to various locations across Bengaluru.

Bose and Ghosh face charges under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, which deals with online fraud. Their petition to quash the charges was rejected by the High Court.